Parents choosing a homebirth would have these supplies ready by week 36 -- one month before the due date. Click "Read More" to see a list of supplies.

Begin with a practical matter:

A large index card, or other piece of paper with your list of emergency phone numbers posted clearly on the fridge and by the phone nearest your nest for birth, if different.

Start with your names and address, phone number, and directions to your home (really). Your doctor, pediatrician/family practice physician, and hospital numbers should all be included. Finish with names and phone numbers for your support people, childcare, doula, and midwives.

Homebirth midwives will give their families a copy of a Birth Supply List. This list is provided as a sample. Some items will vary according to midwife preference and parent choice. For instance, you can order a Trillium Birth Kit from www.InHisHands.com or www.RadiantBelly.com (go to the end of the alphabet and look up Trillium Midwifery Care. The box you order will contain the following items). Have your supplies together by the 36th week of pregnancy. Organize your supplies in two boxes, one in the kitchen, one in your birth area. Midwives review your preparations during their home visit.  The kitty picture here will link you to InHisHands.com

Order Online (or gather some elsewhere):

1 Scrub brush, povidone
15 Underpads, Light Absorbency, 23 x 24”
10 Underpads, Moderate Absorbency, 23" x 36"
5 Underpads, Heavy Absorbency, 23" x 36"
12-16 non-sterile gloves (more if 1st baby)
6 sterile pair gloves (medium vinyl)
3 lube jelly, 3 grams, sterile
10 cotton gauze 4x4-12 ply sponges (2/pkg)
1 Bulb Syringe, 3 oz
1 Baby hat
2 1-gallon ziploc bags
1 homeopathic arnica, 200C
1 cord ring
1 paper tape measure
1 Perineal Irrigation Bottle (Peri-bottle) for each bathroom, Plus 1 Peri-bottle for your oil:
2 Mesh briefs

The following items can be purchased locally for cheaper shipping, or gotten online for ease

4-8 Emergen-C packets
2-10 “bendy” straws for drinking in labor
1 Almond Oil 4 oz --or-- 1 Olive Oil, 4 oz
1 gentle heel lancet (Order online only if you want us to perform the $101 newborn metabolic screening with the card from MN Health Dept. Or, call your clinic ahead to do this at your 1-2 weeks clinic visit & have your insurance pay it.)
1 Waterbirth Upgrade (Order only if you are planning a water birth.)
1 Mattress Bag, or Plastic Sheet, dropcloth, new shower curtain or such
1 Digital thermometer, choose style
1 Hydrogen Peroxide 3% solution, 8 oz bottle

Local grocery, Present Moment Herb Store, and/or Drugstore or get online

New jar of honey and small real maple syrup
1-2 package(s) of cotton cheesecloth (canning section)
4 oz comfrey root (gravel like, not leaves or powder)
Fresh ginger root, the size of your palm
½  oz. Uva Ursi, ¼ c sea salt for postpartum bath
2nd time mom? Then 1 oz. Hops, Cramp Bark, Motherwort, tinctures or herbs (not as strong), or
After ease, or similar tincture
Box of maximum or heavy sanitary pads
3+ sanitary briefs (Depends, etc.)
Any remaining items not previously ordered online or already owned, check items below
 

Preparing For Baby

 
•    24-48 Diapers, and wraps, pins or fasteners
•    3-4 cotton hats (have two in birth area box!)
•    2-5 t-shirts (while belly button heals)
•    4-5 booties or socks

•    10-12 Receiving blankets
•    Heavier blanket
•    Car Seat -  set up in your car!
•    Q-tips for cord care
•    Several outfits (gowns are nice)
 
Wash clothes and cloth diapers in hot water with Dreft or other non-detergent laundry soap. Dry in hot dryer for one hour. Put the following items in a clean paper bag. Put the first item in the bottom first and the last will be on top:

 
1 pull over nightie/sack,
1 short t-shirt
2 diapers (and one cover if cloth)
2 - baby caps.
6 receiving blankets and 1 towel, or
4 receiving blankets and 2 towels.  
Tape it shut and label it, “For Baby.” Keep in the bedroom in a box or bin with the (non-kitchen) birth supplies.
 
 

Household Items to Have on Hand

Please put most of the items are in your “birth area” large plastic tub or big box so they will be easy for your midwives to find when you are laboring. Crock pot and ziploc bags can be in the kitchen box.
 

•    9x13 or 10x14 metal cake pan or plastic container for carrying our instruments
•    2+ large plastic trash bags
•    2 sets of clean sheets. (these will go on your bed, if not already there, with plastic between)
•    Pitcher or large jar for comfrey rinse (2 quart size)
•    2 quart pan with lid (for ginger)
•    2 to 4 quart pan (spaghetti noodle cooking size is best), with lid (for comfrey)
•    3-4 sandwich baggies’ full of crushed ice for ice packs (optional, we can help)
•    Crock pot for ginger compresses
•    6-10 wash cloths for compresses
•    Grater for ginger

•    Sharp scissors to cut cheese cloth into hankie size squares
•    Flashlight with fresh batteries
•    6-10 big towels if you are planning a water birth
•    Heating pad, hot water bottle, or both (to warm mama, baby blankets and baby)
•    A new Kleenex box or roll of toilet paper
•    Paper towels, 1 roll
•    1-2 large bowl(s) for the placenta, and if nauseous in labor
•    Several bottles of your favorite electrolyte drink, Recharge is a good choice
•    Nutritious food for you and your family, for three days at least.
 

Things for Postpartum

•    Several prepared meals in your freezer
•    Nursing pillow or extra pillows
•    Lansinoh breast cream (especially for first-time moms or redheads)
•    Breast pump, if you will be returning to work soon after the birth

Things for Fluff

•    Candles
•    Favorite music
•    Massage oil or lotion
•    Camera, video camera, film, extra batteries, extra memory card

 

Items for Waterbirth

•    Waterbirth tub
•    Waterbirth upgrade, purchased online (Radiant Belly)
•    New hose for filling the pool
•    Connector for hose to fix it to kitchen or bathroom faucet
•    10 clean towels, bathrobe
•    Plastic tarp for the floor under the tub
•    Fish net for scooping stool out of the tub
•    2-3 Stock pots to heat water on the stove when the water heater runs cold
•    2 wash pans or buckets- one for washing feet before entry and one to pee in.

Preparing for Waterbirth

Gather 6 towels, foot washing tub, a pee bucket, and warm robe or blanket handy for when you get out.

Have your tub inflated or otherwise set up before labor. Don’t add water before early labor. Begin adding water when you know or suspect (in the case of a 2nd time mother) that labor is “for real.” Watch the temperature. Keep it hotter than you would like at first, because as your water heater cools off, you can add more cold water to the hot to fill the tub more than you could if you added only the desired temperature of water from the beginning. Just how you do this depends on how fast labor is progressing. The tub should be between 86 and 98 degrees. <96 for birth.

Please, refer to a water birth information sheet. If you rent your birth tub, you may only need a new and inexpensive pillow to submerge in the tub for your knees, and an underwater camera if wanted.

Organizing your supplies

You’ve done a great job gathering your supplies. Now divide the supplies into two boxes or tubs; one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom or birth area.

Kitchen  

During early labor, put your kitchen supplies out on the counter, either in the box or on the counter itself. Your helpers will want some work space in the kitchen.

 
2 -4 oz. comfrey root, looks like gravel, not powder or leaves. The leaves have too little allantoin to work.
1 piece of fresh ginger root as long as your hand
Food grater, hand-held
1 package of cotton cheesecloth
Other herbs, optional, see above.
Kitchen shears or strong, sharp scissors for cheesecloth
1 quart pan with cover if you need your bulb syringe sterilized
2 quart pan with cover
2 - 4 quart pan (spaghetti noodle cooking size is best) with lid
Perineum squirt bottles- for rinsing perineum after birth
Crushed ice in 3 or 4 sandwich bags for ice packs
1 roll of paper towels
2-  1-gallon size zip loc baggies for placenta
Sterile gauze
Box of maximum (heavy) size sanitary napkins (pads)
3 or 4 bottles of Recharge, Third Wind or Gatorade
Homemade Red Raspberry Leaf tea or Hibiscus tea popsicles or frozen juice cubes
Extra juice and food – protein drinks, eggs, soup, grape and/or cranberry juice
Flexible straws
 

Birth Area

1 cake pan, metal, not glass, or optionally, one plastic Tupperware style bar container, no lid, of about the size of a cake pan, for our instruments
1 sterile bulb syringe in package, or if you don’t have one in a sterile packet, put 1 new, one-piece bulb syringe (3 oz. ear syringe, not 2 oz. size) in the kitchen in view to be boiled during labor. Do not rely on a previous child’s bulb syringe.
Thermometer, digital is fine, get a new one.
Flashlight, with fresh batteries (check the batteries now, please! We want a bright light.)
1-2 large bowls – for nausea and later, placenta
2 big trash bags -for laundry, trash, etc.
Heating pad or hot water bottle or both

3 or more sanitary briefs (Depends)
Your disposable underpads (Chux)
1 – small bottle of almond or olive oil for massage, and perineal lubricant preferably in a peri bottle
1 - box 4x4 sterile cotton, gauze pads or “sponges”
1 box of Kleenex

Nightgown or t-shirt for after the birth (nursing access desirable) and warm, dry socks
Mesh briefs (or old, large undies)
Diapers (not Pampers or other brand with absorbent pellets, they can cause abrasions)
Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) for cord, if necessary.
Nursing bra & long maxi pads (for after day three)
Optional: Camera- with film if needed, Chapstick, candles, music, massage oil...

 

Preparing Your Bed for Birth

•    Place fitted sheet and top sheet on bed. This should be the set you want to be tucked in to after the birth.
•    Place plastic sheeting or shower curtain on top of first set of sheets. Can be on mom’s side of bed, which will be the
side closest to the toilet for postpartum.
•    Put the fitted sheet from the set of sheets you want to birth on (if you birth in bed) on top of the plastic sheeting.

Cover one or two pillows with plastic bag(s) - then tape shut. These pillows are for between your legs. If you don’t want plastic, use old pillows or cheap pillows that you won’t mind if they get tossed out after the birth. You need to have a fairly firm mattress. Place plywood underneath the mattress if it is so soft that your hips sink in when semi sitting, or place a 6-10 inch neat stack of newspapers in a garbage bag to “sit” on.  After birth, we’ll clean up your room while you are toileting.


 

Preparing Herbs for Sitz Bath and Perineal Compresses

1.    In hankie-size cheesecloth or open 4x4, tie 3-4 tablespoons comfrey root very loosely.

2.    Boil 2 quarts of water in the biggest pot you have.

3.    Add comfrey root herb tied in cheesecloth bundle, simmer for 30-60 minutes.
4.    Let sitz bath (comfrey "tea" or liquid) cool.  Don’t throw comfrey root away.
5.    Store sitz bath (comfrey "tea" or liquid) in the refrigerator.
6.    Open up 2 gauze 4x4 pads and place one on top of the other.
7.    Open cooked comfrey bundle. Place 2-3 TBSP of herbs in center of gauze.
8.    Fold up like a burrito. Don’t tape or sew, simply wet with comfrey liquid.
9.    Get a shallow pan, like a bar pan, or plate to set the pads in. Separate pads between layers of plastic wrap, or simply freeze without letting the pads touch and repack after freezing so they don’t freeze together.
10.    After the birth, fill your peri-bottle ½ full with cold liquid, in bathroom add hot water just before use. Use some of this liquid in the bathtub or sitz bath bowl for sitz baths.

If you have time in early labor you may find preparing the herbs relaxing and perhaps a nice distracting activity. They should not be prepared too far ahead of time as the sitz bath will only last a week in the fridge. Many of the homebirth midwives are happy to prepare your herbs.

Preparing Ginger Compresses

1.    Wash and peel about 1 cup of fresh ginger, grated or finely chop it.

2.    Cut a piece of cheesecloth the size of a hankie and place ginger in the middle.

3.    Bring the corners together and tie with string loosely into a ‘hobo bundle’.

4.    Place in a ziploc bag in the freezer door where we can find them. Or take out in early labor and defrost on the kitchen counter.

5.    Boil ginger bundles in 1 ½ - 2 qts of water for 20-30 minutes. Let cool on the stove until needed.

When close to pushing, we’ll heat the ginger in the crockpot.  Dipping a washcloth in the hot ginger water makes a perineal compress. The ginger helps your tissues to stretch. It smells good, too. The warmth is nice to push against.

A Doula’s Take on Homebirth

When the time came for Rebecca to push, it wasn’t determined by someone coming in and checking and declaring, “Okay, you are fully dilated. Time to push!” Instead, she transitioned into the birthing tub, moved around and investigated ways that best suited her needs. Soon, the urge to push just appeared. Without instructions, bright lights, counting or commotion, Rebecca found a way to push her beautiful baby girl out into the world.

This particular birth experience revealed to me not only a different side to birthing, but a different perspective of the doula’s role. Normally, a big part of my job is to help the couple negotiate with the hospital staff and explain the basic risks vs. benefits of different interventions. This time that aspect was removed and one of my main contributions was to just watch and be present. I stepped in when Rebecca needed a gentle touch, a hand to hold or a soft voice to remind her she was perfect “as is.” I stepped away when she didn’t need me or when she and her husband needed time together. Rebecca’s primal instinct was our true leader on this journey. And it led her and her baby well.”

— Debra Flashenberg
Excerpted from "Let Your Monkey Do It—A Doula’s Take on Homebirth," Midwifery Today, Issue 93
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